Artificial intelligence and the future of humanity | Gaza Strip experiencing internet outages and electricity cuts after bombings | Warning AI industry could use as much energy as the Netherlands
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Thinking and learning about artificial intelligence are the mental equivalent of a fission chain reaction. The questions get really big, really quickly. The most familiar concerns revolve around short-term impacts: the opportunities for economic productivity, health care, manufacturing, education, solving global challenges such as climate change and, on the flip side, the risks of mass unemployment, disinformation, killer robots, and concentrations of economic and strategic power. The Strategist
Internet access in the Gaza Strip has been severely affected by power cuts and infrastructure damage since Hamas launched an attack against Israel over the weekend, according to groups that track online connectivity. As of Monday, eight of the primary internet service providers serving the Gaza Strip had little to no connectivity, according to NetBlocks, a company that tracks internet censorship. NBC News
The artificial intelligence industry could consume as much energy as a country the size of the Netherlands by 2027, a new study warns. Big tech firms have scrambled to add AI-powered services since ChatGPT burst onto the scene last year. They use far more power than conventional applications, making going online much more energy-intensive. BBC
ASPI
Artificial intelligence and the future of humanity
The Strategist
David Wroe
Thinking and learning about artificial intelligence are the mental equivalent of a fission chain reaction. The questions get really big, really quickly. The most familiar concerns revolve around short-term impacts: the opportunities for economic productivity, health care, manufacturing, education, solving global challenges such as climate change and, on the flip side, the risks of mass unemployment, disinformation, killer robots, and concentrations of economic and strategic power. Each of these is critical, but they’re only the most immediate considerations. The deeper issue is our capacity to live meaningful, fulfilling lives in a world in which we no longer have intelligence supremacy. With that in mind, this is the first piece in a new Strategist series that will look at artificial intelligence over the coming months as part of this ongoing and vital debate. ASPI is a national security and international policy think tank, so we’ll be focusing on security and international dimensions. But what I’ve outlined here is really the ultimate human security issue, which is our global future and our ability to continue to live meaningful lives. This is the biggest question we are facing right now and arguably the biggest we have ever faced.
Australia
Federal government urged to expand critical minerals list as clean energy transition drives global increase in demand
ABC News
Rachel Pupazzoni
Nickel is an essential component in many of the things we need for the clean energy transition, like batteries, wind turbines and solar panels. It's also one of the most widely used minerals across hundreds of thousands of products because of its high melting point, its magnetic capabilities and can be fully recycled. The International Energy Agency predicts by the next decade, we'll need twice as much nickel as the world is currently producing. Despite that growing demand, nickel is not deemed to be a critical mineral by the Australian government.
China
Saudi-China collaboration raises concerns about access to AI chips
Financial Times
Simeon Kerr, Samer Al-Atrush, Qianer Liu and Madhumita Murgia
Saudi-Chinese collaboration in artificial intelligence has stirred fears within the Gulf kingdom’s premier academic institution that the ties could jeopardise the university’s access to US-made chips needed to power the new technology. Professor Jinchao Xu, an American-Chinese mathematician at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, has launched AceGPT, an Arabic-focused large language model, in collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and the Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data.
China to impose ‘ethics reviews’ on research covering humans, animals and AI
South China Morning Post
Ben Jiang
China will require its universities, hospitals, enterprises and research institutions to conduct “ethics reviews” of any research covering humans, animals and artificial intelligence, according to regulations published by the central government this week. The new rules, effective December 1, list seven types of ethics research that will require additional verification from third-party experts, including “algorithmic models, applications and systems with the ability to shape public opinion and guide social awareness” and “clinical research on invasive brain-computer interfaces”, according to a notice published by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Chinese programmer ordered to pay 1m yuan for using virtual private network
The Guardian
Amy Hawkins
A programmer in northern China has been ordered to pay more than 1m yuan to the authorities for using a virtual private network, in what is thought to be the most severe individual financial penalty ever issued for circumventing China’s “great firewall”. The programmer, surnamed Ma, was issued with a penalty notice by the public security bureau of Chengde, a city in Hebei province, on 18 August. The notice said Ma had used “unauthorised channels” to connect to international networks to work for a Turkish company.
China’s ‘blue dragon’ strategy in the Indo-Pacific
The Strategist
Patrick Mendis and Antonina Luszczykiewicz
To compete strategically with the United States and undermine President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific policy, China has quietly been advancing its stealthy divide-and-conquer foreign policy agenda on four different but connected frontiers. The core of Beijing’s comprehensive plan can be described as a ‘blue dragon’ strategy, anchored primarily between two ‘unsinkable aircraft carriers’, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. The plan targets three bodies of water in the Indo-Pacific region and the major river systems in Southeast and South Asia originating in the Himalayas. Despite Washington’s public denial of a containment policy against China, the US has continued its global spy operations and increased its defensive military posture in the Indo-Pacific. The Biden administration’s recent re-engagement with Beijing emerges from the tense diplomatic hiatus following the Sino-Russian ‘no limits’ pact in February 2022 and the US Air Force’s downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February 2023.
USA
U.S., China both try to gain upper hand ahead of Biden-Xi summit
The Wall Street Journal
Lingling Wei and Charles Hutzler
Even as the U.S. and China are trying to repair ties ahead of an expected summit between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Washington and Beijing are jockeying for the upper hand. Each government is taking actions aimed at setting the tone in the relationship and coming into the summit in a position of strength, said people familiar with recent discussions on both sides. As soon as the coming days, the Biden administration is expected to roll out long-awaited updates to export-control measures that would further restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors and chip-making tools, according to people briefed on a draft of the updates. Timing of the release hasn’t been finalized. Beijing has objected to what it calls persistent “technology bullying” by Washington.
Utah sues TikTok, claiming damage to youth mental health
The Hill
Tara Suter
Utah is suing TikTok as of Tuesday for allegedly encouraging children into social media usage that is detrimental to their mental health. The Beehive State is taking aim at the social media company with a focus on allegedly enticing children to use the app for prolonged periods of time, not being honest about its safety and lying about its independence from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, The Associated Press reported. It joins Arkansas and Indiana in comparable lawsuits against TikTok, the AP said.
IBM CEO: Washington should hold tech firms accountable for AI
POLITICO
Steven Overly
Washington should hold companies that develop AI — and those that use it improperly — liable for harms caused by the technology, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in an interview. With AI regulation a hot topic in Washington, his position puts IBM — among the largest tech firms and a longtime Washington player — at odds with others in the industry who are pushing for a light regulatory touch.
The wager that betting can change the world
The New York Times
Kevin Roose
On Manifold Markets, users can create a market on any topic and invite other users to bet on it. Winners get bragging rights along with units of Mana, the company’s play-money currency, which they can convert to charity donations or use on other bets. Prediction markets aren’t a new idea, nor is the hope that betting could produce useful information. Gambling on elections and other political events was common in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. And in countries where political betting is still legal, odds are often cited alongside polls and surveys as a meaningful data point.
North Asia
Bit by bit, the internet is getting smaller in Hong Kong
Nikkei Asia
Charles Mok and George Chen
Many observers have wondered whether China's Great Firewall might be extended to Hong Kong. The good news is that since the Chinese legislature imposed a new national security law on the city in July 2020, there has been no attempt to bring in the country's system for the wholesale filtration and blockage of foreign websites and global internet platforms. The bad news, though, is that internet controls are increasingly being applied in a target-specific manner in Hong Kong, alongside widespread self-censorship that is even affecting the city's growing diaspora.
Assessed cyber structure and alignments of North Korea in 2023
Mandiant
Michael Barnhart, Austin Larsen, Jeff Johnson, Taylor Long, Michelle Cantos, Adrian Hernandez
The DPRK’s offensive program continues to evolve, showing that the regime is determined to continue using cyber intrusions to conduct both espionage and financial crime to project power and to finance both their cyber and kinetic capabilities. Latest DPRK nexus operations hint at an increase in adaptability and complexity, including a cascading software supply chain attack seen for the first time, and consistently targeting blockchain and fintech verticals.
Southeast Asia
Will Laos' economic zones boost growth or bring in criminals?
Nikkei Asia
Alastair Mccready
With the Laotian government unable, or unwilling, to control what occurs inside some of its SEZs, concern is growing about their role in facilitating transnational crimes like money laundering, drug trafficking and online scams.
Hacked Philippine health insurer didn’t have cyber protection software
Bloomberg
Cliff Harvey Venzon and Ditas B Lopez
The Philippines’ state health insurer didn’t have cyber protection software when hackers attacked its computers, giving criminals access to the data of millions of its citizens and triggering calls for an extensive cybersecurity audit. While the full extent of the breach has yet to be determined, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. has warned its over 36 million members — around a third of the country’s population — that their data may have been compromised.
Europe
EU legislation on Big Tech funding 5G rollout likely for next Commission, sources say
Reuters
Foo Yun Chee
EU industry chief Thierry Breton will likely set out a strategy next year requiring Big Tech to help fund the rollout of 5G and broadband across Europe, leaving it to the next European Commission to decide whether to adopt legislation, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Europe's telecoms operators say Alphabet's Google, Meta's Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft and Amazon should bear some of the costs because they make up a huge part of internet traffic.
UK
Downing Street trying to agree statement about AI risks with world leaders
The Guardian
Dan Milmo, Kiran Stacey and Aubrey Allegretti
Rishi Sunak’s advisers are trying to thrash out an agreement among world leaders on a statement warning about the risks of artificial intelligence as they finalise the agenda for the AI safety summit next month. Downing Street officials have been touring the world talking to their counterparts from China to the EU and the US as they work to agree on words to be used in a communique at the two-day conference.
Middle East
Gaza Strip experiencing internet outages and electricity cuts after bombings
NBC News
Kevin Collier
Internet access in the Gaza Strip has been severely affected by power cuts and infrastructure damage since Hamas launched an attack against Israel over the weekend, according to groups that track online connectivity. As of Monday, eight of the primary internet service providers serving the Gaza Strip had little to no connectivity, according to NetBlocks, a company that tracks internet censorship.
Israel’s failure to stop the Hamas attack shows the danger of too much surveillance
WIRED
Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. It’s also one of the most heavily locked down, surveilled, and suppressed. Israel has evolved an entire intelligence apparatus and aggressive digital espionage industry around advancing its geopolitical interests, particularly its interminable conflict in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Yet on Saturday, Hamas militants caught Israel unaware with a series of devastating land, air, and sea attacks, killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands wounded. Israel has now declared war.
Social media platforms foment disinformation about war in Israel
The Record by Recorded Future
Suzanne Smalley
Video game clips purporting to be footage of a Hamas fighter shooting down an Israeli helicopter. Phony X accounts spreading fake news through fictitious BBC and Jerusalem Post “journalists.” An Algerian fireworks celebration described as Israeli strikes. These are just a few examples of the disinformation swirling around the conflict between Hamas and Israel, much of which has been enabled by X, formerly known as Twitter, and by platforms like Meta and Telegram. The platforms have also been used to terrorize. In one instance, a girl found out that a militant had killed her grandmother after he broadcast it on a Facebook livestream. Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
EU warns Elon Musk of ‘penalties’ for disinformation circulating on X amid Israel-Hamas war
CNN
Brian Fung and Donie O'Sullivan
European officials warned X on Tuesday that the company formerly known as Twitter appears to have been hosting misinformation and illegal content about the war between Hamas and Israel, in potential violation of the European Union’s signature content moderation law. In a letter addressed to X owner Elon Musk, Thierry Breton, a top European commissioner, said X faces “very precise obligations regarding content moderation” and that the company’s handling of the unfolding conflict so far has raised doubts about its compliance.
Israel-Hamas conflict was a test for Musk’s X, and it failed
Bloomberg
Davey Alba, Daniel Zuidijk, and Isabella Ward
Posts about the attack in Israel have led to confusion, misinformation and conflict on Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, exposing how his acquisition and policy changes have transformed the social media site into an unreliable resource during a time of crisis, researchers said.
Israel freezes crypto accounts seeking Hamas donations, police say
Reuters
Henriette Chacar, Tom Wilson and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Israel has frozen cryptocurrency accounts used to solicit donations for the Palestinian militant group Hamas on social media, police said on Tuesday. Hamas launched devastating attacks from Gaza into Israel on Saturday, in one of the most serious escalations in the Israel-Palestinian conflict in years.
War with Hamas threatens funding recovery in Israel's vital tech industry
Reuters
Steven Scheer
The spiralling conflict with the Palestinians is set to derail a fragile recovery in Israel's all-important tech sector, say investors and analysts, after a global slowdown and the government's divisive judicial reforms saw funding drop sharply this year. Israel, one of the world’s most innovative high-tech economies, relies on the sector for 14% of its workforce and nearly a fifth of its overall economic output. It has weathered decades of turmoil and is ultimately expected to see investment return once the conflict ends and fundraising globally recovers, they added.
Huawei promotes advanced 5G services in the Middle East amid increasing regulatory headwinds in Europe
South China Morning Post
Iris Deng
Chinese telecommunications gear giant Huawei Technologies is turning to the Middle East to promote its advanced 5G technology as the US-sanctioned company faces increasing pressure in Europe. At Huawei’s Global Mobile Broadband Forum in Dubai on Tuesday, the company’s rotating chairman Ken Hu Houkun said the firm is working on 5.5G technology with operators to meet demand for equipment that can deal with growing amounts of data. The 5.5G technology, also known as “5G-Advanced”, has been hailed by the company as the next level of telecommunications technology with a tenfold increase in speed over existing networks.
Big Tech
New technique leads to largest DDoS attacks ever, Google and Amazon say
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Amazon, Google and Cloudflare said they detected the largest distributed denial-of-service attacks on record in August due to a newly discovered vulnerability. The companies explained on Tuesday morning that a bug tracked as CVE-2023-44487 allowed threat actors a fresh angle for overwhelming websites with a flood of traffic, making them temporarily unavailable to users. Exploitation of the vulnerability is known as an HTTP/2 Rapid Reset Attack.
Why are there so many images of child abuse stored on iCloud? Because Apple allows it
San Francisco Chronicle
Hany Farid
Over the years, police have found many sexually exploitive images of children stored on iCloud — including a Bay Area doctor who was convicted of child pornography in 2021 after at least 2,000 explicit photos and videos of children were discovered on his iCloud account. Child safety advocates have been pushing Apple to take measures to protect children from this kind of abuse. Two years ago, it looked like the company was finally going to do just that.
Analysis: Why Elon Musk might lose his latest battle with the SEC over Twitter probe
Reuters
Chris Prentice
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken Elon Musk to court again, and this time it may win. The agency on Thursday asked a federal court to force Musk to testify for its investigation into his $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, the third time the SEC has taken Musk to court.
Artificial Intelligence
Warning AI industry could use as much energy as the Netherlands
BBC
Zoe Kleinman and Chris Vallance
The artificial intelligence industry could consume as much energy as a country the size of the Netherlands by 2027, a new study warns. Big tech firms have scrambled to add AI-powered services since ChatGPT burst onto the scene last year. They use far more power than conventional applications, making going online much more energy-intensive.
How AI reduces the world to stereotypes
Rest of World
Victoria Turk
Bias occurs in many algorithms and AI systems — from sexist and racist search results to facial recognition systems that perform worse on Black faces. Generative AI systems are no different. In an analysis of more than 5,000 AI images, Bloomberg found that images associated with higher-paying job titles featured people with lighter skin tones, and that results for most professional roles were male-dominated.
Misc
Haptic technology creates new ways to experience music for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
ABC News
Sam Nichols, Sam Carmody
Haptic technology is not new; since the 1990s, it's been used as a tool for interpreting sound. But in recent years, technological advancements have resulted in a wave of haptic devices, creating new ways for people to experience sound.
Hackers modify online stores’ 404 pages to steal credit cards
Bleeping Computer
Bill Toulas
A new Magecart card skimming campaign hijacks the 404 error pages of online retailer's websites, hiding malicious code to steal customers' credit card information. This technique is one of the three variants observed by researchers of the Akamai Security Intelligence Group, with the other two concealing the code in the HTML image tag's 'onerror' attribute and an image binary to make it appear as the Meta Pixel code snippet.
How blockchain technology can help build a sustainable business amid global digitization
Forbes
Ben Sever
We have entered an era when accepting blockchain, cryptocurrency and disruptive technologies are beyond an emerging trend, but are imperative for sustainable business. Financial technology thought leaders such as Gary Cardone not only provide great case studies of this financial revolution by their public usage of blockchain within their international portfolios, but many feel a duty to actively educate their global audience to the inevitable and crucial disruption to banking best practices.
Caroline Ellison, adviser to Sam Bankman-Fried, says he ‘Directed’ her to commit crimes
The New York Times
David Yaffe-Bellany, Matthew Goldstein, J. Edward Moreno
Ms. Ellison is the government’s star witness in the criminal fraud trial of the founder of the FTX crypto exchange. First they were colleagues on a trading floor in New York. Then they were friends running a start-up together in Hong Kong. Eventually they became partners in a turbulent office romance chronicled in tabloid headlines around the world.
Research
How to prevent, identify and address vicarious trauma — while conducting open source investigations in the Middle East
Bellingcat
Hannah Ellis
Whether it involves victims of a chemical attack or a bombing, open source investigators are required to watch and interact with raw footage from the field — it lies at the core of online open source investigation. As a consequence of the increase in eyewitness media, investigators come in contact with a high amount of graphic footage. While this is potential evidence for investigative and accountability purposes, we must be mindful of the effects that traumatic media can have on those coming in contact with it on a regular basis. The consequence of repeated exposure to eyewitness media or testimony is secondary, or vicarious, trauma. It is mental distress that is experienced as an outcome of interacting with graphic online media.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.